2. Schedule a special “Prayer for Peace” day and time when
people in different locations can pray together

3. Postcards for Peace – Invite people from around the world
to send postcards to national leaders with the simple request “Peace”

4. Postcards for People – Invite people to send postcards to
Christian leaders and communities in war torn regions expressing solidarity

You may like to think about and discuss what effect these
may have and how these could be put into practice.

Some of the questions to be asked/raised include:

1. Who provides the money to buy the weapons? Where do they get their money?

2. Who profits from the weapons sales or the fighting?

3. What non-violent action can be taken to stop/prevent violence?

4. Who can make that action a reality?

Prayer
for Peace

Lord God of
peace, hear our prayer!

We have
tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own
powers and by the force of our arms. How many moments of hostility and
darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have
been shattered; how many hopes have been buried… But our efforts have
been in vain.

Now, Lord,
come to our aid! Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the
way of peace. Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to
say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”. Instil in our
hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Lord, God
of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to
live as brothers and sisters. Give us the strength daily to be
instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our
brother or sister. Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who
entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation
into confident trust, and our quarrelling into forgiveness.

Keep alive
within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt
for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last,
and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of
every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our
hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings
us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of:
Shalom, Peace, Salaam!

Amen.

(Pope
Francis)

Comments

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